MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Senator HUME (Victoria) (17:03): Way back in 2022, the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, looked Australians in the eye, and he said that life will be cheaper under a Labor government. 'You will be better off under a Labor government.' He promised cheaper mortgages, except there was a problem. Interest rates went up under Labor. They went up over 12 times.
He promised cheaper energy bills—$275 cheaper, to be precise—but, unfortunately, electricity bills went up. He promised cheaper child care, but the gap kept widening and the out-of-pocket expenses kept growing. He promised cheaper health care, but it now costs $50 out of pocket to go to your average GP appointment.
So, instead of delivering a cheaper life under Labor, Labor has in fact delivered to Australians the largest fall in living standards in the developed world. Australians are poorer under a Labor government. The Reserve Bank of Australia had to keep interest rates higher for longer, and they did so because Labor's spending was higher for longer.
Labor's addiction to spending has kept interest rates higher because inflation is higher than it needs to be. You don't need to believe me. You can listen to the Reserve Bank governor.
You can listen to economists. You can even listen to Treasury. Today, Australians are paying up to $1,300 more on their energy bills than Labor promised.
While they promised a $275 reduction, it's $1,300 more. If Australians had known back in 2022 what Anthony Albanese meant when he said that life would be cheaper under a Labor government—higher mortgages, higher power bills, more expensive health care, more expensive child care—do you think they would have signed up to a Labor government? And today, to make matters worse, we've found out that the government was briefed by the department back in May, warning of rising energy bills—something that they kept from an unsuspecting public.
The briefing claims: … the draft Default Market Offer (DMO) points to a further significant increase in retail electricity prices next financial year. A further significant increase in retail electricity prices—that doesn't sound like $275 off your bills, does it? In fact, that's the last thing that Australian families need to hear right now because, let's face it, for those that have suffered for the last three years under Labor's cost-of-living crisis, this might well be the news that breaks the camel's back.
In the last term of parliament, the coalition with the help of the Greens established a cost-of-living committee that travelled right around the country. It listened to businesses and communities. It listened to individuals and community groups, particularly charities, to the stories of heartbreak and sorrow of people that are really suffering under the cost-of-living crisis.
Only a few months ago, Anglicare Australia released its 2025 Cost of living index. The results of that were bleak. They echo some of the sentiments that we heard throughout the cost-of-living committee inquiry.
They confirmed the reality of a worsening energy debt crisis. A full-time worker on the minimum wage has just $33 spare each week after rent, food and transport. That is extraordinary.
A single parent would have just $1 left even after government assistance. Just $1. How heartbreaking that is!
A two-income family with two children is left with only $5. This won't even buy a cup of coffee, let alone a tank of petrol or a doctor's appointment for a sick child. Anglicare's executive director, Kasy Chambers, said they're seeing more and more people trapped in energy debt every single day.
When people are facing energy bills that are up by $1,300, it's no wonder that this is the case. It's truly astounding that, while Australian families and businesses are faced with these significant hardships, Labor can simply keep pushing ahead with an agenda that's not delivering on the promise they made. The Albanese government is spending 26.2 per cent of GDP—that's the highest level of government expenditure outside a pandemic or a financial crisis in four decades.
It's real spending growth of 5.5 per cent. That's not what economists are warning against. That's not what the Reserve Bank Governor has been saying for years now.
At some stage, we have to rein in the incessant insistence on spending by the government—tax and spend; tax and spend—because it's actually making the economy worse, and it's pushing the cost of living beyond the control and beyond the despair of all Australians. Australians deserve better than this. Anthony Albanese promised Australians would be better off under Labor, but instead Australians are paying a dire price.